📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Zolotoe Serdtse (Golden Heart)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly popular commercial Russian variety sold by major seed companies like Aelita and Sedek. The name translates to “Golden Heart”.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate (bush). Very compact and cold-tolerant. Usually stays around 24 to 32 inches (60-80 cm) tall in open ground, but can push 4 feet (1.2 m) in a greenhouse. Growers recommend minimal pruning (only pinching suckers up to the first truss).
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Bright orange, firm, meaty oxhearts. Weights typically range from 5.3 to 10.5 oz (150-300 g). They have tough skin, resist cracking, and boast an excellent shelf life.
- 👅 Flavor: Pleasant, balanced, and moderately sweet. While it might not be the absolute sweetest slicer for fresh eating, its dense, meaty texture makes it top-tier for canning, pickling, and making sun-dried tomatoes.
An orange tomato, determinate (bush type). The fruits are heart-shaped, very dense, and weigh between 5.3 and 10.5 oz (150-300 g). The plant height is about 24 to 32 inches (60-80 cm). It is resistant to Late Blight. Fantastic variety for canning.
Lidia, whose seed stock were those originally from?
We grew ones just like that from the Aelita seed company’s “Golden Heart” packets. Good, meaty, and has a great shelf life. We grew it two years in a row and saved plenty of seeds last year for future use 😋
Threw some in jars for pickling too, but haven’t tried them yet.
I was pleasantly surprised by the heavy yield for a determinate variety. It set fruit perfectly in both cool weather and intense heat. It’s an early ripening variety. The taste fresh off the vine didn’t really impress me, but I absolutely love it canned in jars as a tomato salad!
I grew one bush in the greenhouse. It got up to about 24 inches (60 cm) tall, and I didn’t pinch out any suckers at all. For me, it turned out to be mid-season. The yield is excellent 👍. The fruits are very firm, perfect for canning or freezing in chunks, and they store really well. Average weight was around 3.5 to 5.3 oz (100-150 g).
My seeds were from Sedek.
Quote from Anzhelika: My seeds were from Sedek
My “Golden Heart” seeds were from Aelita, and they look exactly like your second photo. As seedlings, they stubbornly refused to grow. Even though germination was uniform and strong, only 4 out of 10 survived. But once I put them out in the open ground, they were the very first to set fruit. They aren’t in any rush to turn yellow yet, though 🤷♀️
This is how my Golden Heart grew out on the balcony (I had four plants total in a 10.5-gallon / 40-liter planter box). The seed packet promised the tomato was cold-tolerant, and honestly, I think it’s the only variety that isn’t suffering from the cold right now. It grew thick fuzz all over its stem (and the leaves too) and it absolutely does not care about this freezing summer.
Quote from Rusalka: It grew thick fuzz all over its stem (and the leaves too) and it absolutely does not care about this freezing summer.
Oh man, what a summer we are having! Even the tomatoes are growing fur 😂 😂 😂
Well, finally, this one is the very first of all my varieties to color up! Orange, dense, not watery at all, and nice and sweet 😋
Grew it outdoors in the dirt. Heavy yielder, very tasty. It got to about 3.3 feet (1 m) tall. Seeds were from Nadine. I absolutely loved it! 👍 👍 👍
Do you need to pinch out the suckers on this one?
Marina, I removed the suckers up to the first truss, just as recommended. After that, I left it alone. But mine grew taller in the greenhouse than Svetik’s did. Somewhere around 3.3 to 4 feet (1-1.2 m) tall. It stayed shorter out in the open ground. It set fruit well in both spots. It’s an absolute workhorse variety. But man, it has a lot of foliage. I honestly didn’t know how to thin it out properly in the greenhouse. I messed up one bush and accidentally pruned all the suckers off completely. The yield on that one was lower, but the tomatoes themselves were bigger. Tasty, dense, and great shelf life.
Thanks Olya, writing that down so I don’t forget lol.
My tomatoes grew both outdoors and in the greenhouse. The variety is a real workhorse. It just keeps pumping out fruit. The tomatoes are still ripening in the greenhouse even now. The fruits themselves are meaty and moderately sweet. The skin is tough, making the tomato very convenient for transporting, and it doesn’t tend to crack. In the greenhouse, the bush reached 3.3 to 4 feet (1-1.2 m). Outdoors in the dirt, it was short, about 24 to 32 inches (60-80 cm).
The fruits differed depending on location too. Up to 10.5 oz (300 g) in the greenhouse, but outdoors they stayed around 5.3 to 6.3 oz (150-180 g). I don’t know where the seeds originally came from (my mom planted them), but they were from a commercial color packet. Sown on March 3rd, transplanted into the greenhouse on May 9th, and the first tomato ripened on July 23rd.
Interestingly, some of the other tomatoes in the greenhouse are starting to “dry out” on the vine right now (I mean the fruits themselves). But this one doesn’t care at all. The tomatoes are beautiful and uniform. Well, the ones the cutworms didn’t ruin, anyway.
Beautiful! How is the sweetness on this variety?
They taste sweet to me, but there are definitely much sweeter varieties out there. Also, right now it seems to taste even better than it did in the middle of summer haha.
I also planted Golden Heart this year. I agree with Olga, the variety is an absolute workhorse. It set a ton of bright orange fruits. My first fruit ripened on June 23rd 😄. It weighed 4.1 oz (118 g). Sown for seedlings on March 27th. Grew it outdoors in open ground. The next fruits were bigger: around 7 to 8.8 oz (200-250 g). The flavor is pleasant, sweet with just a little acidity. I will definitely repeat it next year. It just looks so incredibly beautiful in canning jars.
My seeds were from 2014 from PTK Novgorod. I gave it a chance just to see what would happen. The bush set a ton of these identical small hearts. I saved seeds from it. They have very few seed cavities, which I really loved because it made them perfect for making sun-dried tomatoes without having to throw away half the flesh. I literally sliced them up like chips and dehydrated them.
I planted Golden Heart from Aelita for about five years straight from the exact same packet. In 2020 they were really tasty, but I ended up having to tie all the tomatoes up. We ate a bunch fresh, saved seeds, and turned the rest into juice.
